BAY CITY, MI — A 26-year-old Bay City man police say lured his girlfriend's ex to his house, then beat him to the degree that he had to be hospitalized has pleaded guilty to a felony assault charge.

Jason D. Defeyter on Monday, Dec. 16, appeared in Bay County Circuit Court and pleaded guilty to one count of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder. The charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

In exchange for his plea, the prosecution agreed to dismiss another count of the same charge and single counts of aggravated assault and malicious destruction of property between $200 and $1,000.

Defeyter's charges stem from an incident that occurred Thursday, Sept. 12. On that day, police responded to McLaren Bay Region hospital in reference to an assault. A patient there, Christopher A. Ellison, 33, told officers that his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his two children texted him, asking him to come over to her residence in the 700 block of South Wenona Street, where she was living with her current boyfriend, Defeyter.

Ellison told police he went to the residence with his mother to pick up his ex and help her pass out job applications. He said he was under the impression Defeyter would be at work at the time. When he approached the back door, Defeyter appeared, knocked Ellison to the ground and began punching and kicking him, Ellison told police.

Defeyter proceeded to smash Ellison’s phone and glasses. Ellison said he crawled away and that Defeyter told him if he called the police, he would say Ellison was trying to break into his home, court records show.

Ellison returned to his home and was transported to the hospital via ambulance. Police wrote in their reports, contained in court documents, that Ellison had blood all over his face, a swollen left eye and was having difficulty breathing.

Police interviewed Defeyter at his home and he told them he used his girlfriend’s phone to send Ellison a text message, asking him to come over.

“When I came around the corner toward the back door he was trying to go inside so I kicked the (expletive) out of him,” Defeyter told police. “I punched him and then kneed him in the face when he was bent over.”